Senior Backend Engineer (Scala)

AvantStay; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A dynamic hospitality tech company is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer with deep expertise in functional programming, particularly Scala. In this fully remote role, you will design and maintain production systems, collaborating with a skilled team to enhance guest experiences and internal operations. Candidates should have a solid grasp of functional programming principles and experience with tools like AWS and Kubernetes. Join us for a chance to craft resilient, high-quality systems in an innovative environment.

Benefits

Generous paid time off

100% remote work

Qualifications

• Deep functional programming expertise, preferably in Scala.
• Experience building production-grade FP systems.
• Solid understanding of functional programming principles.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain production systems.
• Work across the stack on various functionalities.
• Rapidly prototype new ideas for validation and innovation.
• Collaborate with product, design, and operations.
• Write high quality and maintainable code.
• Review code and focus on technical quality.

Skills

Functional programming expertise

Scala

Haskell

Clojure

Elm

Elixir

AWS

Kubernetes

Kafka

GraphQL

PostgreSQL

English communication

Job description

Who we are

AvantStay delivers exceptional, unique stays for group travelers. The company has built a tech-enabled millennial hospitality brand to be the new standard for group experience. We are venture funded and growing rapidly in the explosive $100+ billion dollar STR industry.

What we are looking for

We are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer with deep functional programming expertise in Scala who is excited to solve complex production challenges. The right person treats engineering as craft, refining his approach and skills every day, and is motivated by building resilient, high-quality production systems that drive business outcomes and stand the test of time.

When you join, you’ll collaborate with a team of passionate engineers to build the software that powers both guest experiences and the internal systems behind the scenes. Together, we refine, improve, and maintain the production systems that support tens of thousands of guest stays every month.

Our fully remote team is small, flat, and talent-dense. We are strong advocates of the functional paradigm and write our backend in functional Scala. We also welcome engineers with deep FP experience in languages like Haskell, Clojure, Elm, or Elixir who are eager to work in Scala.

What you’ll do

• Design, build, and maintain production systems that power our core business.
• Work across the stack - from customer-facing features to internal systems.
• Rapidly prototype new ideas to validate opportunities and drive innovation.
• Collaborate closely with product, design, and operations to solve cross-functional problems.
• Write high quality code that serves its purpose well.
• Review code and engage peers to focus on technical quality and pragmatic decision-making.
• Participate in the full development lifecycle — from ideation to post-launch support.
• Help shape our engineering culture and technical direction.

What you’ll bring

• Experience building production-grade FP systems (Scala is preferred, but Haskell/Clojure/Elm is also good if you are excited to dive into Scala)
• Solid understanding of functional programming principles and their practical application in production systems.
• Experience using the Typelevel stack: Scala 2.13+/ Scala 3, along with cats/cats-effect/zio, and related libraries.
• Experience with our infrastructure stack: AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL.
• You treat engineering as a craft, refining your skills all the time.
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken, for effective communication in a distributed team.
• Comfortable working in small, fast-paced, product-focused teams with shifting priorities.
• A bias toward action, curiosity to explore unfamiliar tools and patterns, and the ability to work through ambiguity.

We understand that everyone’s path is different. We value agency over experience. If you don’t check every box but bring curiosity, drive, and a clear sense of purpose – we want to hear from you.

• Generous paid time off including company holidays
• 100% remote - Work from anywhere in the world